Van Jones at the Take Back The American Dream Conference

So this morning I had some plans. They were good plans. They involved looking for a grant for a position I’m trying to create for myself in the area of General Do-Gooderness (it’s more detailed than that, but let’s not digress) and moving forward on a huge writing project that I really need to move forward on (…) — and then I discovered, via the Twitters (thanks Shoq!!) that I could watch a livestream of Van Jones’s speech at the Take Back The American Dream Conference.

I thought I’d listen, sort of keep it on in the background, as I worked.

Well! Apparently one doesn’t just keep Van Jones on “in the background.”

Aside from the fact that he is a hell of a speaker (which I already knew), his words were powerful, and very, very necessary. They kept hitting home — boom! boom! boom! Like powerful, necessary words will. So I started live-tweeting, a little late to the game — and even a little late to the game, there was enough there to light a fire in even the most weary belly. My excited tweeting is chirpstoried below*, but it boils down to this, progressives: We can be miserable, or we can do something. Let’s do something.

(I didn’t even capture what was probably the best line – Jones was talking about how people have been really beat down, and some are saying they just can’t bear to get up anymore: “I won’t be aspirational anymore!”, he said, and crossed his arms much like my children used to and made a big ol’ pouty face. And then cracked himself up. It was delightful, and honestly, how often have we progressives done “delightful” lately?)

*Oy mein Gott, I cannot get the chirpstory to embed here! You can see it by clicking here or by going to my crosspost at Angry Black Lady Chronicles (where it embedded just fine, thankyouverymuch) — as soon as I figure this out, I’ll replace this annoyed parenthetical with the real thing…. Sigh. Fired up! Ready to go!

Here’s one, brass-tacks idea: Get involved with voter registration drives. Even if it’s only one Saturday, or one evening, you’ve done something very, very important — and then spread the word and ask others to do the same.